Man I can't even handle a regular old ant invasion. Oh and Jesse, I'm still waiting for the next big earthquake that will make California slide off into the ocean, been hearing about that one since the 1960s.

"Since trying Michael Menkin's Helmet, I have not been bothered by alien mind control. Now my thoughts are my own. I have achieved meaningful work and am contributing to society. My life is better than ever before. Thank you Michael for the work you are doing to save all humanity."

I bet that Mr. Menkin could, for the right price, make a helmet big enough to cover your whole house. I assume some wimpy sunspot activity would be no match for his anti-alien-thought-ray technology!

Logged

I wish I was a Glowworm; a Glowworm's never glum. 'Cause how can you be grumpy, when the sun shines out your bum?

As my dear old friend Professor A F Terson, Professor in Astro Physics once said,"Don't worry about it! 2013 will come and go and your synths will still be working. If it does happen then life without electronics won't be a problem as we will all be dying from radiation sickness anyway"

Man I can't even handle a regular old ant invasion. Oh and Jesse, I'm still waiting for the next big earthquake that will make California slide off into the ocean, been hearing about that one since the 1960s.

That's another one I don't buy into. A massive earthquake of epic levels? Sure, but I don't believe the entire west coast slides into the ocean.

A: Solar activity has a regular cycle, with peaks approximately every 11 years. Near these activity peaks, solar flares can cause some interruption of satellite communications, although engineers are learning how to build electronics that are protected against most solar storms. But there is no special risk associated with 2012. The next solar maximum will occur in the 2012-2014 time frame and is predicted to be an average solar cycle, no different than previous cycles throughout history.

I liked this one also:

Quote

Q: Does the Mayan calendar end in December 2012?

A: Just as the calendar you have on your kitchen wall does not cease to exist after December 31, the Mayan calendar does not cease to exist on December 21, 2012. This date is the end of the Mayan long-count period but then -- just as your calendar begins again on January 1 -- another long-count period begins for the Mayan calendar.

Hey! Wait a minute - how does NASA know I have a calendar on my kitchen wall! oh wait, I don't. Liars.

I'm not too worried about my synths. There are more important things to protect in case of solar storms. So, I'm going to dig my tin foil hat and tin foil underwear out of the closet now. I want to have them in close proximaty when it does happen!

I'm not too worried about my synths. There are more important things to protect in case of solar storms. So, I'm going to dig my tin foil hat and tin foil underwear out of the closet now. I want to have them in close proximaty when it does happen!

The Mayan's say that their calendar ends and as it is both more accurate than ours and they created it long before we had ours I think that gives them a certain level of expertise in the matter.

However what they say is that the reason the calendar ends is that time changes - not that the world ends, which is also a bit different to the western take of apocalypse - again I think they tend to have the expertise on this one too for the same reasons.

(it is perhaps a little similar to the western interpretation of certain glyphs carved by meso-americans. Pictures of barbed vines being pulled through tongues was interpreted as sado-masochitic rites - but the people themselves (who weren't asked by the western scholars) said that the images are symbolic of lying).

In all seriousness, I think if solar activity was THAT bad so that even relatively small consumer electronics were affected, we (humanity) would be in such deep shit on a bigger scale that the state of your synthesizers would be the least of your concerns. Not saying it will or could even happen (and yeah, I remember Y2K too), but any solar event that would be able to fry small pieces of gear, think what it would do air traffic control systems, main frames, etc etc etc. I've seen too many post-apocalyptic movies (e.g. The Road, The Book of Eli, to name two recent ones) and I do NOT want to live in a society anything remotely like that anyway, either with or without synthesizers! LOL

In several of the articles I've read there is a lot of discussion of serious serious problems IF this were to happen. Let alone the power grid, if this sort of thing does affect a large portion of electronic devices then yes civilization would be in a rough spot for sure and who needs a PCM80 if this happens!? Ok, really, I'm not a crazy alarmist... still bothers me though.... but so did the baked beans I had for dinner.

Although I shudder to think of a bleak future for this planet without quality digital reverb, perhaps now is the time to invest in some good springs.

In all seriousness, I think if solar activity was THAT bad so that even relatively small consumer electronics were affected, we (humanity) would be in such deep shit on a bigger scale that the state of your synthesizers would be the least of your concerns. Not saying it will or could even happen (and yeah, I remember Y2K too), but any solar event that would be able to fry small pieces of gear, think what it would do air traffic control systems, main frames, etc etc etc. I've seen too many post-apocalyptic movies (e.g. The Road, The Book of Eli, to name two recent ones) and I do NOT want to live in a society anything remotely like that anyway, either with or without synthesizers! LOL

In several of the articles I've read there is a lot of discussion of serious serious problems IF this were to happen. Let alone the power grid, if this sort of thing does affect a large portion of electronic devices then yes civilization would be in a rough spot for sure and who needs a PCM80 if this happens!? Ok, really, I'm not a crazy alarmist... still bothers me though.... but so did the baked beans I had for dinner.

Although I shudder to think of a bleak future for this planet without quality digital reverb, perhaps now is the time to invest in some good springs.

My miniMoog will be ok. It eats geomagnetic waves for breakfast and shits them out as sine waves.

The Mayan's say that their calendar ends and as it is both more accurate than ours and they created it long before we had ours I think that gives them a certain level of expertise in the matter.

However what they say is that the reason the calendar ends is that time changes - not that the world ends, which is also a bit different to the western take of apocalypse - again I think they tend to have the expertise on this one too fro the same reasons.

Of course no one ever points out that the Mayan civilization ended before their calendar does, so is the calendar still valid since the culture that produced it doesn't exist anymore?

Oh and Jesse, that whole thing about California falling into the ocean is bogus, just ask any geologist. The reason why we have earthquakes is because parts of California are moving North. They say eventually my house will be prime bay area beach front property.

In all honesty, if the solar storms are bad enough to fry electronic equipment, the first to die will be the big computers that manage the electrical grid. With any luck the power will go down around the world long before our home systems get zapped.

... And I actually had a computer that fell victim to Y2K. It was a very nice desktop computer, an AT&T Unix PC. It ran a very nice variation of UNIX System V R-2, with an interesting alpha-graphic windowing environment. UNIX survived Y2K just fine, but the calendar on the windowing system clicked over from 1999 to 19100.

Oh and Jesse, that whole thing about California falling into the ocean is bogus, just ask any geologist. The reason why we have earthquakes is because parts of California are moving North. They say eventually my house will be prime bay area beach front property.

Hey Loren, look on the bright side--if the tectonic plates merge the Northern and Southern halves of the state, maybe we'll finally meet each other!

I remember a song from the late 60s about California falling into the ocean. It's a very potent meme, apparently.

Of course no one ever points out that the Mayan civilization ended before their calendar does, so is the calendar still valid since the culture that produced it doesn't exist anymore?

Oh and Jesse, that whole thing about California falling into the ocean is bogus, just ask any geologist. The reason why we have earthquakes is because parts of California are moving North. They say eventually my house will be prime bay area beach front property.

The Mayan people are still there, dreaming - just not as a major civilisation any longer. And as the calendar was based on numerous and very accurate astronomical observations it is apparently still more accurate than ours. There was a very good national geographic book on the native americans many years ago which explained in more detail.